Friday, October 7, 2011

"At the end of the day, what are we but the sum of the people who'd mourn their loss if we were gone?"

I still remember writing this almost a year ago, and I've never quite been as forcibly reminded of it as much as today, when we all woke up to the news that Steve Jobs had passed on.

By this time of the day, everyone has said what they needed to say about Steve, but I just feel compelled to... I dunno, say something, somehow.

I've always been lusting after Apple products ever since I first laid eyes on the bondi blue iMac, and the only thing stopping me was, well, the lack of dollar bills which still stop me from getting a Mac today. And I'd always been fascinated with how Steve, with his personal backstory worthy of a summer blockbuster, managed to turn an electronics-manufacturing company into a cult with a global following.

One of the things about Steve Jobs that remember reading about the most was his approach to design - his need for a product he was creating to be simple, intuitive, and just work. And that inspired me to try to think that way about my work as well whenever possible - not that I'm designing anything earth-shattering lah - but for things to make sense, and fit together to tell a story.

It's strange to feel sad about the passing of someone you've never even met before, but it's not so strange anymore when you see all the tweets, Facebook updates and zillions of articles online paying tribute to Steve. My personal favourites were this Wired article on Steve's life story and how he came to be, and Brian Lam of Gizmodo's account of hard choices and regrets over the iPhone 4 leak a year ago.